It is customary for prospective new home purchasers to meet with a salesperson (usually an agent of a construction company) and to review various home designs that the construction company offers. During this process, financial information may be obtained from the prospective buyer in order to determine "how much home" they can afford. If the prospective buyer is interested in a particular subdivision, the sales persons must access various records to determine the status of the various lots in the subdivision to determine which lots are available, what their cost is and other information which may be relevant to the decision making process of the potential purchaser.
It can be easily seen that the information which the sales associate must access in answering some basic questions that a single potential purchaser may have can become cumbersome--even at the initial stages of a potential purchaser's inquiries. It can also be easily seen that once a purchaser enters into a purchase agreement with the home construction company, much information must be tracked such as the status of the home construction, mortgage approval status, selected options to the home, and various change orders, etc. In view of the above, it is easy to see how the management of information associated with the construction and sale of a single home can be daunting. However, when a construction company must deal with multiple subdivision projects which are disbursed across multiple, geographically remote sites, the management of information associated with each of the construction projects is a monumental undertaking if done using conventional, manual techniques.
In view of the above, it is an object of this invention to provide a computer based system for managing the information flow associated with new home construction and new home sales. This object is accomplished by providing the salesperson with various software modules which facilitate information flow between the purchaser/potential purchaser and the sales associate. Also, the present invention sets forth a software system for coordinating information flow between sales sites and a more centralized site where information can be collected and acted upon. Thus, the present invention not only facilitates information flow at the sales office level, but facilitates information flow between various sales offices and various remote locations.